Representation Of African Americans Research Articles

An African Looks at America: Picturing Racial Integration for Africa, 1956–68

The global tour of Edward Steichen’s 1955 photographic exhibition The Family of Man, sponsored by the United States Information Agency (USIA), has long been viewed as the defining moment for the medium’s engagement in US Cold War diplomacy and propaganda. Yet the attention garnered by this single exhibition has served to obscure an extensive programme of photographic diplomacy developed by the USIA during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and largely overlooked by photographic scholarship. One strand of this programme was shaped by the twin concerns of racial conflict at home and decolonisation in Africa and Asia. As the US government cultivated audiences in the newly independent nations of the emerging Third World, it became clear that it would need to adapt its message. Racial integration became a pervasive theme in the agency’s photographic output as it sought to picture America for its international audiences and visually refute accusations that the USA was an inherently racist society. In contrast to studies of US propaganda output of the early 1950s, which have suggested a limited repertoire for the representation of African Americans, the photographic records for this period provide evidence that the USIA paid close attention to the micro-politics of racial interaction and endeavoured to create a richer and more complete set of representations. Seen in the context of the time, the carefully choreographed portrayals of interracial interaction that emerge from the USIA archives are remarkable, if always highly partial and selective.

Black America and Hollywood’s Korean War: The Steel Helmet (1951) and Pork Chop Hill (1959)

Representing neither the glory of World War II, nor the anguish of the Vietnam War, the Korean War continues to occupy an obscure place in American history and culture. Similarly, those who fought in this conflict – including African Americans – have been overshadowed by the combatants who served before and after. Yet the Korean War was enormously significant, not least because it was the first conflict fought by a racially integrated American fighting force. For the first time, black and white soldiers ate, slept, and fought side by side. Films about the Korean War made during the 1950s explored this new racial dynamic. Focusing on the representation of African Americans in The Steel Helmet (1951) and Pork Chop Hill (1959), this article examines the ways in which screen representations both reflected and challenged popular attitudes regarding African American military service during the Korean War.

The racial disparity in the Major League Baseball draft, 1965–2001

Racism has been a central element in the history of Major League Baseball. And yet, there is an incredibly rich history of African American baseball in the United States encompassing the Negro Leagues and the celebrated era when rigid racial exclusions from Major League Baseball finally fell giving way in quick succession to the transformative arrival of Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays and Henry Aaron. African American participation on Major League Baseball rosters grew steadily in the decades after Jackie Robinson’s debut, but African American representation in Major League Baseball has precipitously declined in recent years. Within that context, this study explores whether African Americans have been subject to disparate treatment in the Major League Baseball draft. An analysis of more than 9000 selections in the Major League Baseball draft from 1965 to 2001 reveals a significant disparity based on race. Relative to White players, African American players were undervalued in the draft. This disparity is not rooted in the drafts of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Instead, major league teams began significantly undervaluing African American prospects in the 1990s. The implications of this pattern are particularly notable given baseball’s recent decision to shrink the draft to 20 rounds.

Perceptions of fentanyl among African Americans who misuse opioids: implications for risk reduction

BackgroundFentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin and has become ubiquitous in the illicit drug supply in the USA. Studies show that among people who use drugs, fentanyl is sometimes viewed as a desirable substance due to its high potency and low cost, while others have an unfavorable perception because of its association with overdose. Unfortunately, studies on the perceptions of fentanyl are relatively rare and existing studies tend to rely on samples with little African American representation. The objective of this study, therefore, was to identify and describe perceptions of fentanyl among African Americans who misuse opioids, while capturing their motivations for seeking out or avoiding fentanyl.MethodsIn-depth interviews (n = 30) were conducted with a sample of African American adults who misuse opioids in Southwest Florida between August 2021 and February 2022. Audiotapes of interviews were transcribed, coded, and thematically analyzed.ResultsAnalyses revealed the presence of three subtypes of fentanyl-related perceptions: (1) fentanyl as an avoided adulterant, (2) fentanyl as a tolerated adulterant, and (3) fentanyl as a drug of choice.ConclusionsThese findings show that African Americans’ perceptions of fentanyl are not monolithic and suggest the distribution of fentanyl test strips and naloxone may be an effective risk reduction strategy. Given that most studies on fentanyl rely on quantitative data from drug seizures and death certificates, this study uniquely contributes to the literature by capturing the voices of African Americans who use drugs.

Are Pivotal CART Trials Representative of Population at Risk?

Introduction Since 2017, 6 chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies have been approved for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL), Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBL), Follicular Lymphoma (FL), and Multiple Myeloma (MM) and have changed the treatment landscape immensely. There is significant demographic and geographic under-representation in pivotal clinical trials leading to drug approvals for leukemias, lymphomas and MM compared with the population affected. We investigated whether similar disparities exist in pivotal CAR-T trials. Method Clinical Trials leading to CAR-T approval were identified from the US Food and Drug Administration databases. Demographic data was collected from clinicaltrials.gov and primary manuscripts. Standard descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data with stratification by race, ethnicity, sex, and malignancy subtypes. Total incidence of respective malignancies and the demographic representation was obtained from SEER data. Results A total of 10 out of 11 (90.91%) clinical trials leading to CAR-T approval reported data on race and 8 (72.72%) on ethnicity. These trials led to approvals for MM, non-Hodgkin lymphoma (DLBCL, FL and MCL), and ALL. These trials included 1441 patients of which 1155 (80.15%) were reported as White. NCT02445248, for Tisagenlecleucel (tisa-cel) lacked racial data and was excluded from analysis. Data are summarized in Table 1. For MM, 2 CARTs have been approved, Idecabtagene vicleucel and Ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel). African American (AA) representation in these pivotal trials, NCT03361748 and NCT03548207 (CARTITUDE-1), respectively was 4.7 % and 17.5 %. In contrast, SEER data shows that AA population represent 21% of the incident MM cases over the last 5 years (2016-2021). In ALL, 2 CARTs, tisa-cel and Brexucabtagene Autoleucel (brexu-cel) have been approved. AAs had 0.55% of representation in the CAR-T ALL clinical trials, whereas they represent 7.5% of all ALL cases in the past 5 years. For follicular lymphoma, Tisa-cel and Axicabtagene ciloleucel (Axi-cel) have been approved as third line treatment. For DLBCL, lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel), tisa-cel and axi-cel have been approved as third line with liso-cel and axi-cel also having second line DLBCL indication. Brexu-cel has been approved for third line MCL. Under-representation of AAs with respect to disease distribution was noted in all these trials. Female patients were also disproportionately under-represented in lymphoma trials overall. Ethnicity was reported less frequently in aforementioned studies but available data suggests Hispanic groups being underrepresented in these trials. Conclusion There are significant demographic under-representations and imbalances in pivotal clinical trials leading to CART approval compared with the population affected. Efforts need to be directed at ensuring racial and ethnic inclusivity and equity in trials for better applicability to the “real world”. Trials should also consistently report demographic data, especially ethnic and racial, for better transparency and accurate analysis of presented data.

Utopian Vision and Its Double: An Allegorical Portrait of Black Life in Hurston’s One-act Play Mr. Frog

Zora Neale Hurston was an anthropologist and a woman writer participating in the African American literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. A prolific and versatile writer, she wrote a number of plays, and, in particular, devoted herself to creating ‘black folk comedy’ as a form of ‘the new and the real Negro theatre’ that honestly showed the language and daily life of black people in South Florida. This study focuses on Herston’s one-act play Mr. Frog as an example of black folk comedy. A fable story, the short dramatic skit represents the utopian model of coexistence and symbiotic community by portraying the lives of animals. On the other hand, this utopia created on stage is a space that does not exist in reality, so in return, it indirectly suggests ‘other’ picture hidden behind the surface, namely, the portrait of contemporary black people in South Florida living the harsh reality of racism. In the play, the utopian vision is presented as ‘double’ and this writing strategy meets the nature and effects of an allegorical narrative deriving from the correlation of surface text and the hidden meaning or subtext. This study concludes that Mr. Frog, through the fable story of animals, dramatizes the ‘double’ of the utopian vision that diverges into the ideal community for coexistence and the reality of black life, thereby suggesting a model for allegorical playwriting.

Invited African-American Radiation Oncology Grand Rounds Speakers: DEI or Die?

Invitations for grand rounds/visiting professor speakership are a sign of national expertise and are used to evaluate faculty promotion and advancement in Radiation Oncology. Consequently, evaluation of the demographics of faculty receiving such invitations may play a role in elucidating barriers to career advancement. We performed this study to assess the demographic racial and gender representation of invited Radiation Oncology speakerships, as well as the proportion of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)-related talks among invited African-American radiation oncology speakers. Radiation oncology programs in the United States were contacted by telephone and e-mail to obtain a list of speakers (grand rounds speakers and/or visiting professor) invited to their institution along with their speaking topics presented between January 2021 and December 2022. Speakers were categorized demographically by race and gender; speaker demographics were determined by a previously validated combination of facial recognition and internet investigation (PubMed.gov identification numbers 30996695 and 34919411). Speakers who were not faculty (i.e., residents, medical students) were eliminated from analysis. Talk topics were categorized as either DEI or non-DEI talks from the presence/absence of DEI-related content in the speaker's talk title. The Fisher's exact test was used for statistical analysis, with significance set at p < 0.05. A total of 252 invited speakers and their associated talk topics were obtained from 51 radiation oncology programs. Of these speakers, 98 were female (38.9%) and 16 were African-American race (6.3%). The invited talk topic was DEI-related in 7% of total cases. Among speakers not of African-American race, this was 4.2% (10/236); among African-American speakers, it was 50% (8/16). This difference reached statistical significance (p<0.0001). A significant proportion of invited African-American radiation oncology grand rounds/visiting professor talks are focused on the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), compared with less than 5% of non-African-American invited speakers. Targeted efforts to expand African-American representation in non-DEI topics are needed to ensure and expand diversity in Radiation Oncology.

Developing a culturally tailored digital health intervention for insomnia in Black women.

Insomnia disorder is highly prevalent among Black women. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is considered the optimal treatment, but very little efficacy research has been conducted in minority populations. Culturally tailoring intervention content may increase participant engagement and improve treatment outcomes. We culturally tailored an Internet-delivered CBT-I program (Sleep Healthy Using the Internet; SHUTi) for Black women. First, relevant stakeholders were identified. Semi-structured interviews were conducted after stakeholders completed each of the six SHUTi intervention sessions. Questions focused on improving program relatability and engagement for Black women. Key themes pertinent to peripheral, evidential, and sociocultural strategies for cultural adaptation were identified using thematic content analysis, and adaptation recommendations were developed. A total of 50 interviews, across 9 stakeholders, were conducted. Two overarching themes were identified: (i) there was limited visual African American representation, and (ii) there was a lack of diversity in the environments and lifestyles of the patient vignettes. Respondents provided peripheral, evidential, and sociocultural recommendations for program modifications, emphasizing the importance of race-concordant visual content and didactic content exploring the diverse cultural and social contexts in which insomnia occurs for Black women. As more diverse patients seek evidence-based insomnia treatment, digital health interventions must consider whether it is therapeutically important to address and tailor for cultural differences. Here, stakeholders made clear recommendations for taking cultural contexts into account to improve patient engagement with the program. Further research should work to understand the extent to which culturally tailored interventions are beneficial for health outcomes among minority populations.

The Representation of African Americans in 12 Years A Slave and Antebellum Films

Cinemas are often used as an element of escapism and a representation of reality to the audience. Cinema also plays a crucial part in developing and sustaining racial cultural ideas and attitudes in the United States of America and globally. Since the 1830s, African Americans have appeared in film as either shown unfavorably or as small-minded people in comparison to their white peers. In a famous film in America, “Birth of Nation”, a white actor who acted as African American was portrayed as savagely violent who seized on Caucasian women. Despite the inaccurate portrayal of African Americans in the film, identical tropes have continued to emerge in the film industry since the 1920s. Therefore, this paper studies the representation of African Americans in Hollywood films using Critical Race Theory. Two Hollywood films will be used as a comparative case study namely Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave (2013) and Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s Antebellum (2020) respectively. The result shows the importance of race and racism in society, several common types of racial prejudice have been detected in the films. Pathological stereotypes have also been presented through the films and the white characters show their power and control towards the African Americans who once had equal privilege with them. Keyword : Representation, African-Americans, Hollywood Films, Antebellum.

Barriers and opportunities for promoting health professions careers among African American students in the Midwest

The purpose of our study is to examine the barriers and facilitators for urban African American students interested in pursuing health professions careers in the Midwest. In our analysis of the key informant interviews and focus groups, we identified four barriers (lack of preparation, lack of funding, lack of support/isolation, and perceived discrimination) and three facilitators (early preparation, support/mentorship, funding). We provide recommendations for how to leverage these facilitators and address the barriers to increase the representation of African Americans in the healthcare workforce. Novel future directions for this work should include comprehensive interventions tailored to URM students that span the health professions education pipeline and begin as early as elementary school. Interventions that engage mentors should take place at high school, undergraduate, and graduate health professions school levels.

African American Sheet Music

African American Sheet Music is a database created by the Center for Digital Scholarship located in John Hay Library at Brown University. It is a culturally rich database filled with sheet music, illustrations, lyrics, and music publishing history centering around the lives of African American composers, musicians, singers, dancers, and stage actors. Various descriptions have the holdings set between different collection dates; however, in the search filters researchers can search items between 1800 and 1926, with some years missing in between. African American Sheet Music contains a wealth of information about African American theater during eras such as the Antebellum South, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Post-Reconstruction. In addition, there are important illustrations for blackface minstrelsy. Approximately 1,455 items are digitized and readily available for research usage.

Остров тоталитаризма: «Макбет» Орсона Уэллса

By the time of the eventual success of the premiere of Macbeth (1936) directed by Orson Welles as part of the Harlem Negro project by FTP, the African American theater already had its own small but remarkable history. However, this production received a tremendous response and is still the subject of controversy among scholars: evidence of this resonance is the appearance of the feature film Voodoo Macbeth (2021). All roles were performed by black actors, and the action was transferred to Haiti during the reign of Henry Christophe. Critics were disturbed by the disrespectful attitude to the Shakespearean text, modern researchers — by the exoticization of the African American cultural code. The reason for the discussion was (and still is) the director's radical interpretation, which shifted the semantic accents from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the witches. By increasing their role quantitatively and qualitatively, Orson Welles, a contemporary of the growing totalitarian regimes, created a piece about the all-pervading evil leveling the human personality. Having changed the chronotope of Shakespeare's tragedy and rethinking the principle of working with Shakespeare's heritage, Welles, for the first time in the history of American theatre, invited black actors to perform universal characters, to work with classical dramaturgy. Article is based on vast amount of archival materials, critical reviews and researches on Orson Welles and the Federal Theatre Project. Article examines the steps of the formation of the director's and set designer’s concepts, a reconstruction of the production is executed among other purposes.

African American Representation on the Boards of Banks and Mortgage Loan Rejection Rates

African American Representation on the Boards of Banks and Mortgage Loan Rejection Rates

Dean Martin: King of Cool“Sammy and Dino,” You Must Remember This

Dean Martin: King of Cool“Sammy and Dino,” <i>You Must Remember This</i>

Subverting Representation: African Americans in Horror Film

This article explores the slowly changing representation of African Americans in horror films. Scream 2 (1997), I Am Legend (2007), and Get Out (2017) are used as case studies to illustrate what little progression has taken place through the decades in relationship to African Americans on-screen in horror cinema. Topics such as stereotypical tropes, narrative conventions, themes of dehumanization, and racial oppression are investigated across each film to highlight representational similarities and differences through time.

S844 Inpatient Outcomes and Healthcare Utilization in Obese vs Non-Obese Patients Hospitalized with an Acute Ulcerative Colitis Flare - A Nationwide Cohort Study

Introduction: Ulcerative colitis (UC) remains a leading cause of patient morbidity and in severe cases, mortality. Given the rise in prevalence of obesity in the United States, the goal of this study is to illustrate the impact of obesity in hospitalized patients admitted for acute flares of ulcerative colitis (UC). Our primary outcome was adjusted odds of inpatient mortality. Secondary outcomes included length of hospitalization (LOS), total hospital charge (THC), and complications including sepsis, upper and lower GI bleed (UGIB)(LGIB), and acute kidney injury (AKI). Methods: The National Inpatient Sample (NIS, 2016-2018) was sourced for hospitalization data from adult patients admitted for UC flares. The queried pool of patients was stratified into obese (BMI ≥ 30), and non-obese cohorts using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes. After performing descriptive analysis on the involved cohorts, linear and multivariate regression was used to evaluate study outcomes. STATA 14 was used for data analysis. Results: Of 142,094 admissions for UC flare, 12,989 (9.14%) had comorbid obesity. Compared to non-obese-UC patients, obese-UC patients were significantly older (51.2 vs 48.5 years, p < 0.0001), were more often female (63.9% vs 53.0%, p < 0.0001), had greater Caucasian and African American representation (73.0% vs 71.5%, p < 0.0001), (13.8% vs 11.3%, p < 0.0001) compared to non-obese patients. Obese-UC patients had more comorbid disease as measured by a Charlson Comorbidity Index score ≥3 (16.4% vs 9.62, p < 0.0001), and had more patients belonging to the poorest quartile of family income (27.9% vs 23.9%, p< 0.0001). Obese-UC patients as compared to those without obesity had a nonsignificant increase in adjusted odds of inpatient mortality (aOR 1.17; 95% CI 0.67-2.03, p=0.583). Obese-UC had higher rates of complications including LGIB (OR 1.79, p = 0.017), Shock (OR 1.48, p = 0.017), AKI (OR 1.42, p = 0.001). Additionally, Obese-UC patients had an increased LOS (5.48 vs 5.18 days, p = 0.007) and higher THC ($54,194 vs $49,957, p = 0.005). Conclusion: Obesity did not significantly increase inpatient mortality. However Obese-UC patients had increased complications (LGIB, Shock, AKI), LOS, and THC relative to UC patients without obesity. Additional studies are needed to further investigate the effects of obesity in UC, and to help reduce the economic burden obesity places on the healthcare system.

S894 Inpatient Outcomes and Healthcare Utilization in Obese vs Non-Obese Patients Hospitalized with an Acute Crohn’s Disease Flare—A Nationwide Cohort Study

Introduction: Crohn’s Disease (CD) remains a leading cause of patient morbidity and in severe cases, mortality. Given the rise in prevalence of obesity in the United States, the goal of this study is to illustrate the impact of obesity on hospitalized patients admitted for acute flares of Crohn’s Disease (CD). Our primary outcome was odds of inpatient mortality. Secondary outcomes included length of hospitalization (LOS), total hospital charge (THC), and complications including sepsis, upper and lower GI bleed (UGIB)(LGIB), and acute kidney injury (AKI). Methods: The National Inpatient Sample (NIS 2016-2018) was sourced for hospitalization data from adult patients admitted for a CD flare. The queried pool of patients was stratified into obese (BMI ≥ 30), and non-obese cohorts using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes. After performing descriptive analysis on the involved cohorts, linear and multivariate regression was used to evaluate study outcomes. STATA 14 was used for data analysis. Results: Of 232,650 admissions for CD flare, 20,100 (8.64%) had comorbid obesity. Compared to non-obese-CD patients, obese-CD patients were significantly older (45.8 vs 43.7 years, p < 0.0001), were more often female (65.9% vs 52.7%, p < 0.0001), and had greater African American representation (17.3% vs 15.4%, p < 0.0001) compared to non-obese patients. Obese-CD patients had more comorbid disease as measured by a Charlson Comorbidity Index score ≥3 (9.80% vs 5.16, p < 0.0001), and had more patients belonging to the poorest quartile of family income (29.0% vs 26.3%, p< 0.0001). No difference in adjusted odds of inpatient mortality was noted between the two groups. Obese-CD had higher rates of AKI (OR 1.17, p = 0.011), and had significantly increased LOS (5.04 vs 4.78 days, p = 0.006). There were no differences in total hospital cost, LGIB, or shock. Conclusion: Obesity did not significantly increase inpatient mortality. However Obese-CD patients had increased odds of AKI and increased LOS relative to CD patients without obesity. Additional studies are needed to further investigate the effects of obesity in CD, and to help reduce the economic burden obesity places on the healthcare system.

A Mini-Review of Strategies for Recruiting Older African Americans to Alzheimer's Disease Research.

African Americans experience higher incidence and prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Yet, they continue to be underrepresented in AD research, limiting the ability to generalize findings to the increasingly diverse US population. To reduce AD disparities, targeted efforts are needed to increase the representation of African Americans in AD research. This mini review identified evidence-based strategies that increased research participation among older African Americans. Four recruitment strategies emerged from eight published peer-reviewed studies that directly evaluated the effectiveness of strategies aimed at increasing the number of African American participants in Alzheimer's research. The strategies include community outreach and education, face-to-face discussions, remote access, and referral and partnership with local organizations. Across different locations, these strategies increased the number of African Americans enrolled into AD research, the number of people that signed up to donate their brains for AD research upon death, and the knowledge and perception of AD in the communities. Targeted efforts are effective in increasing AD research participation among older African Americans, especially when combined with approaches that emphasize transparency and mutual trust and involve the community as stakeholders in the research process.

Shaping the Identity through Dramatizing the Memories - A Study of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson

There is no doubt with the claim that the African-American people have been suffering from a traumatic past of slavery and injustice long time ago. Similarly, they still suffer, but presently with another form of discrimination which is racism. The study argues that August Wilson, in particular, and the African-Americans, in general, are tremendously keen on maintaining their memories because memories do have an irreplaceable part in one’s identity. The study explores Wilson’s The Piano Lesson as a case in point. The present study aims at exploring Wilson as a prolific dramatist whose style was so vigorous and a reflection of the African-Americans’ life of. Furthermore, it sheds light on his play, The Piano Lesson, and how it plays a significant role and a powerful testimony in shaping the memories of the African-American people.The study is divided into two sections and a conclusion. The first section introduces the concept of identity, and it comes across August Wilson as a dramatist. Then it deals with the African American Theatre. On the other hand, the second section deals with The Piano Lesson and how it is viewed as a powerful testimony to the idea that the African-American people cherished their own memories since memories shape one’s identity. Eventually, the last part is the conclusion which sums up the research’s findings.

The Representation of African Americans in Donald Trump’s Presidential Messages on Juneteenth: A CDA Study The paper revised

The Representation of African Americans in Donald Trump’s Presidential Messages on Juneteenth: A CDA Study The paper revised